Brin, Page To Sell 10 Million Shares Of Google Stock

Sergey Brin and Larry Page are going to become much closer to their financial advisors over the next five years. Google disclosed in a regulatory filing late last week that the cofounders each intend to sell about 5 million shares of the company's stock during that period of time.

To address one possible concern: This is no way signals that Brin and Page are abandoning Google. Even after the 10 million shares are sold, the pair will still own 47.7 million shares between them, so it's not like they're cutting all ties and going home.

Also, even though their voting stake will be reduced from 59 percent to 48 percent due to this move, Eric Schmidt controls another 10 percent, so there's no danger of the three Google execs getting overthrown.

Still, the development is a big deal. Miguel Helft calculated, "The sales, if completed, would provide each of the founders $2.75 billion based on Friday's closing price of $550.01."

Google's stock is down 1.15 percent so far this morning. The Dow and Nasdaq are up 0.71 percent and 0.58 percent, respectively.